His little girl
by CatapaultChoice
Summary: Hermione is deaged, and her parents won't take her back. Harry offers to take her in, thinking he'll at least stop her from going to an orphanage. Somehow, though, he realizes he's found a family... Smart!Ron, Manipulative!Dumbledore, possible GinnyxHarry


**Um... nothing to say here except I don't own, and I'm sorry if this stinks!**

--

Potions class- every Gryffindor's least favorite subject.

_It wouldn't be so bad,_ Hermione reflected sadly, _if Snape wasn't teaching._ She sighed and glanced at Ron, who was working on a potion next to her. She wondered which potion it was. Since it was the last day before summer break, Snape had given into the Slytherins pleadings and allowed the fourth years to brew any potion they wished.

Just at that moment, Ron tripped and knocked into his cauldron. It fell over and bathed his and Hermione's feet in putrid smelling potion. The rest of the class 'ewwed' or shrieked (the girls), and jumped onto chairs and tables to avoid the rapidly spreading potion. Snape, emerging from the doorway that led to his office, growled and banished the potion.

His gray eyes took in Ron and Hermione, both still soaked with the slop, and his lips narrowed. "Whose potion was that?" he snapped.

"Weasly's," said Draco Malfoy, reveling in the mayhem, hoping that points were about to be subtracted from Gryffindor,

"Did anyone else touch the potion?" asked Snape. The class shook their heads in unison. "Come with me," he growled at the two miserable Gryffindors.

He led them out of the potions room. After a while, Hermione asked, "Where are we going, sir?"

"To the Headmaster's office," said Snape, not looking at either of them.

"What?" Ron howled. "We didn't do anything wrong! I just knocked into my cauldron-"

"Be quiet, Mr. Weasly," said Snape, "For once, you are not about to be punished. Do you have any idea what manner of potion it was you made?"

"Uh…" Ron didn't want to admit he'd been putting in ingredients willy-nilly.

"It was designed to take all the intelligence from one person and put it into another."

"What? You mean 'Mione will have _my _intelligence?" Ron asked, aghast, "On top of what she's already got?"

"Actually, Mr. Weasly," said Snape, "As you made the potion, it will be the other way around."

Ron and Hermione stared in shock as Snape gave the password to the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to the Headmaster's office.

---

Once the Headmaster had been brought up to speed, he had only one thing to say by way of comfort for the two Gryffindors.

"The potion," he said, "Was designed for only moderately intelligent students. I believe we can all agree that Miss Granger is _exceptionally_ intelligent for her age," he paused, and even Snape nodded, albeit grudgingly. "So she will retain some intelligence. Not much, but enough to keep her from going brain dead."

"Well that's good," snapped Hermione, who was looking daggers at Ron. "At least I'll still have _something_."

"Not much, however," Snape said. "Judging by how badly that potion was made…"

He didn't finish. He didn't have to.

"So when will this happen?" asked Hermione. "Now? Tomorrow? Next week?"

"Gradually," said Snape. "Probably by the end of the summer. I suggest, by the way, that you spend the summer together."

"My parents were going back to France this summer anyway," said Hermione. "I was going to spend my time at the burrow."

"Good," said Dumbledore. "Also, I believe I can orchestrate a distraction for when you return to school so no one will thing your position so unusual."

"Seems a lot of work just for that," said Hermione.

"Oh, it's the least I can do," said Dumbledore, suddenly looking sad.

"Why?" inquired Hermione, suddenly smelling a rat.

"Because, Miss Granger," said Snape, "The potion's effects are permanent."

---

This might be a good time to catalogue the potion's _exact_ effects. There were many that were-shall we say- unexpected, because Ron had not actually made the potion exactly correctly. Or even slightly correctly. Hermione could not read, write, or do simple mathematics. Speaking came at a stretch, and the Weaslys quickly learned to stick to simple words around her.

Like a child, Hermione tended to be captivated by bright, shiny, or sparkly things. Also like a child, she tended to overlook things like 'tact' or 'manners'. She had also lost pretty much all her memories after she was three.

On the bright side, after seeing Hermione's condition, Snape said that she would be able to grow and learn like any other child (Which, at the moment, was what she basically was- a child). She would not be _as_ smart as she was, but she would also not be the near brain dead shell they had all feared.

The Weaslys now faced a new dilemma. Hermione's parents had been informed of the potions effects. They had been unable to understand the small nuances of potion making, and grasped simply that their daughter had been taken away from them.

"Take her away," her father had snarled at Snape, who was 'drafted' by Dumbledore to deliver the news. "We don't want to be reminded every day that Hermione is dead."

No amount of persuasion could change his mind.

So now Hermione faced being put in an orphanage. The Weaslys would have taken her into their home in a heartbeat, but magical law stated that no family could have more than seven children. 

A solution was found in an unexpected place.

"_You_ want to take her in?" Mr. Weasly asked Harry skeptically when Harry had first suggested it the first day he arrived at the burrow.

"Sure," said Harry, shrugging. "I don't want to just abandon her."

"But she can't stay at the Dursleys," interrupted George, who had been listening.

"No," said Harry, smiling, "That's the best part. I did some research after I got your letters. If I magically adopt Hermione, she will be recognized for all intents and purposes as my daughtor. Since I'm the last member of an ancient family, I would become the head of that family when I have my first child, adopted or otherwise."

"And you'd be a legal adult in the wizarding world!" exclaimed Ginny. "Great idea!"

"Right," said Harry, "The Potters have a house, and, apparently, the heir inherits it when he becomes an adult."

"You can't adopt someone who's older than you," said Percy, mood killer as always. "Hermione was born in September. You were born in July."

"Hey, speaking of age," interrupted Fred, "Can we really let Hermione keep running around in a fourteen year old body with a three year old mind? It's not exactly safe, is it?"

"Well, you know, Professor Snape did suggest a potion that could deage her body to match her mind the last time he was here…" said Mrs. Weasly.

Ginny shuddered. "Don't remind me. It's bad enough he has to come by once a week to check on Hermione, let's not talk about him when he's gone."

"Harry, what do you think?" asked Mr. Weasly. "You're the one who wants to do this."

"We should use the potion," said Harry. "I don't want her being abused by Malfoy or someone because she doesn't know what he's doing."

The mood turned very grim after that pronouncement, and the matter of using the potion was decided.

"What about during school?" asked Mrs. Weasly. "I know the rules say you can't have a child there."

Harry shook his head. "I was wondering if she could stay with you while I'm at school. I'd pay for whatever it cost, of course, and I figured since you don't have any kids left at school any more…"

"Of course, Harry!" said Mrs. Weasly.

"We'd be delighted," said Mr. Weasly.

"Good," said Harry.

"So you've finally decided _something_," said a sudden voice from the kitchen doorway. It was Snape, just arrived. "I thought you would reach a conclusion like this," he said, "Although I didn't think _Potter_ would volunteer."

"You know me," said Harry sarcastically, "Full of surprises."

"So I brought the potion along," continued Snape, ignoring him. "Where is Miss-"

"Upstairs, still asleep," said Mrs. Weasly.

"Still?" asked Snape.

"It's only nine," said Ginny.

Snape shrugged as Mrs. Weasly bustled off to the upstairs to wake Hermione.

---

That afternoon, Mr. Weasly, Snape, Harry, and Hermione went to the ministry to make the adoption official. They wanted to do it quickly, before Dumbledore found out their plans. All of them had a high respect for the Headmaster, but he was known to be rather controlling at times… at all times…

The process of magical adoption is an interesting one. The adopted child takes on some of their new parent(s) physical traits. In this case, Hermione had both Harry's messy black hair and his green eyes. 

That night, as he was dozing off to sleep, Harry remembered the Headmaster's promise to Ron and Hermione at the end of last year. _I can orchestrate a distraction for when you return to school so no one will thing your position so unusual…_

What could he possibly have meant by that, Harry wondered as he drifted off to sleep. 

---

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THE SECOND

THE CHAPTER BETWEEN THE FIRST AND THIRD

HARRY POTTER GOES BACK TO SCHOOL AND DUMBLEDORE MAKES GOOD ON HIS PROMISE

---

Summer passed quickly, after the quidditch world cup was over. Before long, the returning Hogwarts students were waving good-bye to Hermione and the Weaslys on the Hogwarts express.

Up to now, this narrative has dwealt on Hermione's plight. The effects of the potion on her. Now, let's switch to Ron's. You may remember, and hopefully you do, or you've got short term memory loss issues, that the potion was meant to give Ron all the intelligence that Hermione lost. You might have assumed, since Ron's name was mentioned, literally, only ten times in the last chapter, compared to Hermione's twenty-four, that maybe since the potion was made so badly, Ron had escaped all its effects.

Well, you would be wrong.

For Ron, the potion had worked exactly as it had been intended to. Everything Hermione lost, he gained. Her intelligence, onviously. He also had all of her memories, which was odd for a while until he got used to it. Then, as she had lost her maturity while she deaged, Ron had grown much more mature.

The result was an older-seeming, polite fourteen-year old red head with a strong thirst for knowledge. Ron, of course, enjoyed this, but his family and friends found that this new Ron was creepy, not really like Ron at all, and tended to avoid him.


End file.
